Reading The 39 Clues Book One
by FallingforWerewolves
Summary: I know it's terribly cliché, but I wanted to try it myself.  I seriously don't own anything.


Amy Cahill was cornered. Or, at least, that's what she felt like. With her younger brother, Dan Cahill, on her right and Ian Kabra, who was being quite snippy today on her left, Amy was stuck with no way out.

Mr. McIntyre had summoned them all here because there were "important matters to be discussed". Dan really couldn't care less. He had ordered a new video game weeks ago and it was supposed to be arriving that day. He didn't know how much longer he could go without his bloodthirsty ninjas!

Ian and Natalie were both suffering from severe jet lag. Natalie was using her nail file to distract herself from all the other Cahills in the room. Especially those noisy Tomas who just wouldn't shut up. Everybody said that Eisenhower only had the volume setting of loud, but that went for the whole Holt family. Natalie was starting to get a headache.

Jonah Wizard was, as he would call it, chillin' in a recliner and, in Sinead Starling's eyes, being oh so annoying. _Seriously, _she thought, _when is he going to start acting like a normal human being?_ True, Jonah hadn't really done anything _too_ horrible during the clue hunt. He hadn't been the one to think up an explosion that almost got her and her brothers killed. It took every ounce of patience in Sinead to not shoot daggers from her eyes at Hamilton, who was being even more idiotic than usual.

Reagan Holt looked around the room to see if she could guess what the other Cahills were thinking. She liked playing this game; almost as much as she liked playing full-contact checkers. Natalie was probably thinking something like _Why is no one paying attention to me?_ Ian was harder, since he almost always masked his emotions, but today it was easy to guess his thoughts. _I hate jet lag and I hate everyone here! _And on it went with Amy being miserable; Dan wanting to leave as soon as possible; Jonah being, well, Jonah; the Starlings thinking they were too smart for everyone; and back to Reagan's family who had actually gone quiet as William McIntyre entered the room.

He was carrying a book with a blue cover with skulls and bones on it (which Dan found kind of interesting).

"This," Mr. McIntyre announced, "is the first book in a series called the thirty nine clues." He was interrupted by murmuring from most, but shouting from the Holts.

"Please settle down!" Once everyone had, William continued.

"As you have probably guessed this book series is telling the world of the clue hunt. Fiske and I have decided that it would be best for all of you to read these and decide on their authenticity."

"You can't be serious," Ian muttered. He hoped that whoever wrote these books had omitted the things he regretted. Of course, he regretted everything he did during the clue hunt, but forbid himself from letting it show. Regret is FLO.

"Oh, I'm deadly serious Mr. Kabra," Mr. McIntyre said. He then held up the book. "This is the first book. It's entitled The Maze of Bones. You can start reading whenever you like."

With that, he put the book down on the coffee table and left the room.

Amy was this close to losing it. Seriously? Everyone had been instructed to keep all Cahill matters secret and now someone had written about the hunt and the whole world knows about it?

She swallowed her anger, like everyone else was doing, and asked "Who's reading first?"

Sinead shrugged. "I guess I will." She picked up the book and began to read.

**Five minutes before she died, Grace Cahill changed her will.**

Both Amy and Dan tensed, but said nothing.

**Her lawyer brought out the alternate version, which had been her most guarded secret for seven years. Whether or not she would actually be crazy enough to use it, William McIntyre had never been certain.**

"**Madam," he asked, "are you sure?"**

**Grace gazed out the window, across the sunlit meadows of her estate. Her cat, Saladin, snuggled beside her as he had throughout her illness, but his presence was not enough to comfort her today. She was about to set in motion events that might cause the end of civilization.**

"But no pressure," Jonah commented.

"**Yes William." Her every breath was painful. "I'm sure."**

**William broke the seal on the brown leather folder. He was a tall craggy man. His nose was pointed like a sundial so it always cast a shadow over the side of his face. He had been Grace's adviser, her closest confidant, for half her life. They'd shared many secrets over the years, but none as perilous as this.**

_So why didn't we meet him before the funeral? _Dan thought.

"**They're so young," William lamented. "If only their parents,"**

"**But their parents didn't, Grace said bitterly. "And now the children must be old enough. They are our only chance."**

"**If they don't succeed?"**

"**Then five hundred years of work have been for nothing," Grace said. "Everything collapses. The family, the world – all of it."**

"_That_ is the definition of pressure," said Hamilton.

**William nodded grimly. He took the folder from her hands.**

**Grace sat back, stroking Saladin's silver fur. The scene outside the window made her sad. It was too gorgeous a day to die. She wanted to have one last picnic with the children. She wanted to be young and strong and travel the world again.**

Amy took Dan's hand, and for once he didn't care.

**But her eyesight was failing. Her lungs laboured. She clutched her jade necklace – a good luck talisman she had found in China years ago.**

Amy did the same, which nobody commented on.

**It had seen her through many close calls with death, many lucky misses. But the talisman couldn't help her anymore.**

**She'd worked hard to prepare for this day. Still, there was so much she'd left undone... so much she never told the children.**

"**It will have to be enough," she whispered.**

**And with that, Grace Cahill closed her eyes for the last time.**

Amy allowed one tear to escape, but caught the others before they could fall. She couldn't afford to be weak right now.

**When he was sure Grace had passed away, William McIntyre went to the window and closed the curtains. William preferred darkness. It seemed more proper for the business at hand.**

Hamilton kept himself from asking "What business?" knowing that all he would get would be a sarcastic response from Sinead or her brothers.

**The door opened behind him. Grace's cat hissed and disappeared under the bed.**

**William didn't look back. He was staring at Grace Cahill's signature on her new will, which had just become the most important document in the Cahill family history.**

"**Well?" a brusque voice said.**

**William turned. A man stood in the doorway, his face obscured by shadows, his suit as black as oil.**

"Black may be fashionable," Natalie said, "but there is such a thing as too much of one colour."

"**It's time," William said. "Make sure they suspect nothing."**

**William couldn't tell for sure, but he thought the man in black smiled.**

"**Don't worry," the man promised. 'They'll never have a clue."**

Sinead lowered the book. "That's the end of chapter one."


End file.
